Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary by Joe Jackson (review)

This biography addresses the life of a Lakota (Sioux) holy man who gained admirers worldwide through John Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks (1972). His fuller identity was revealed in Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala (1993) and Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Missionary, Mystic (2009). Jackson's primary focus is on the same period that Neihardt addressed. He devotes 347 pages to the man's first twenty-five years, while giving just 118 pages to his last sixty. Both factual and fictional in its portrayal of the holy man, this work is rich in speculation—with Jackson even proposing the name of a never-before-identified soldier that Black Elk may have killed at the battle of Little Bighorn.

Historical events are fleshed out—providing context at times but also lengthening the work unnecessarily. This is not a criticism of the author's laudatory desire to inform but rather of his editor's having allowed so much to be reported, e.g., six pages describing John Neihardt's life! The dust jacket itself gives pause to readers when two of its four testimonials are in praise of another book penned by the author (a fiction writer of some renown).

Although countless assertions are made without documentation, this authorial style might appeal to nonspecialists. However, one needs to be wary of drawing conclusions about Black Elk since numerous flaws appear throughout the text—as shown in the sampling that follows: identification of Tekakwitha as "Mohican" instead of Mohawk (p. 15); reference to Lakota spirit-entities as "gods" (pp. 16, 426–27, 484); acceptance of Black Elk's fictional "lament" as fact (pp. 16, 426–27); reference to men as "braves" (pp. 154, 327), to women as "squaws" (pp. 323, 339), and to babies as "papooses" (p. 136)—terms not used in scholarly literature; misidentification of Fort Peck as Fort "Peak" (pp. 174ff); uncritical acceptance of oral traditions that are debatable or demonstrably false (pp. 272, 321, 338, 397, with all opinions given equal weight); racialization of "Lakota men" as "exotic, mysterious, sensual" (p. 272); citation of the Great Sioux "Reservation" (the proper reference) as the Great Sioux "Reserve" (p. 280); failure to attribute Red Cloud's well-known quotation (p. 281); reference to Louis "Gall" when the name is "Goll" (pp. 286ff, 580)—an important matter since there was a contemporary Lakota named "Gall" and a priest named "Gall" (pp. 461ff); erroneous placement of Bernard Fagan on the reservation in the 1930s (p. 356); a reference to interfaith dialogue "ecumenicism" where it should be "ecumenism" (p. 364); inaccurate dates for Red Cloud's war, which took place in 1866–68 (not 1865–68, as a photo notes); an assertion that Black Elk continued his traditional healing practice when evidence says the opposite (pp. 364, 366ff); ignorance of the fact that a Jesuit "provincial" (not the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions) deploys Jesuit priests (p. 370); citation of the Book of Revelation as the Book of "Revelations" (p. 373); a claim that Black Elk identified himself with the Bible's Paul, along with the proposal that this association was, and is, widespread (pp. 381ff); etc.

The Catholic Church appointed a postulator in 2017 to investigate the holy man's cause for canonization as a saint, but Jackson's work will not contribute to this process. His Black Elk is more associated with the oft-heard trope that Lakota elders resisted embracing a Christian identity. Jackson's Black Elk is not a devout Catholic but is, rather, the die-hard traditionalist portrayed by John and Hilda Neihardt. It is their portrayal that Jackson adopts uncritically—echoing all the stereotypes that they espoused—of Indians, Black Elk, settlers, soldiers, and the Native encounter with Christianity.

Jackson commendably provides much information related to the holy man and his people. Unfortunately, the net result is a one-dimensional misrepresentation of Black Elk's experience. The...